Ferdinand

The one I dealt with had a map of which land was included in the Highways Land, with a map in possession of the Highways Authority. My consultant knew how to get a copy after I told him that I knew that had been the position from way back when, and told him to go find the proof. The Nimby Neighbours were trying to play the "not enough room for the required junction" game to stop the Planning Application. As ever anything becomes a lever to stop it. It is quite common for techniial "ownership" to extend to the middle of the road, but the right to use for highway is more like an overruling Right of Way. When we sold our large family home, technical land stuff caused havoc because the road had been moved 10m further away from our fence when the road was realigned by the govt when the M1 was built 200m away, and the buyer's adviser refused to believe we were unequivocally allowed to drive over the extra 10m of verge coming out of our drive. We had been there 37 years. It's a game of GO that someone needs to know how to play. Or they could circumvent you. It is incredibly important to come across as someone with heft, rather than as Mr Angry. When we sold out ransom strip I mention above, by getting a good RICS negotiator in we got multiple times the price initially offered. My other tip is once you are sure your position is unassailable under appropriate advice, be prepared to use time as a lever and let the process take several years. Then there will come a time to grasp the nettle and make your move. You win the battle in the preparation. F

There are procedures for testing your concrete for damp - most involve drilling a small hole. As a crude check, tape come polythene to the floor and see if any moisture emerges underneath it in a day or two. (Shoot me down if this is wrong, guys). On you floor build up, I would seriously consider trimming your doors to get a but more insulation in - even 15mm of celotex will make a difference as the first layer of insulation has the most benefit. Is there s thicker version of those underlay tiles? Document whatever you do so that you can make your EPC assessor acknowledge it. On underlay, have a look at the roll products from manufacturers, as these sometimes contain adhesive strips along the sides which stick together - though those under-tiles also look OK. I think I used this one from QuickStep. https://www.quick-step.co.uk/en-gb/accessories/qsudlbp15_basic-plus-15-m2 F

Reading this, it is a potential goldmine if that is what you want. No reason why you can't be asking for a serviced plot for your or your parents retirement bungalow, or one with a bungalow built on it, or an access to an otherwise not-developable part of your garden. Or 3%-6% or more of GDV seems quite possible if you have a Sword of Damocles over them, and there is no alternative. Take some advice as to value. This could be half your pension fund. Criminal damage may not be enough, since you can potentially (or now) put a fence or a wall round it, or grow the hedge back. That won't unblock the condition if it is as you say, as the Council will require it to be legally protected. My one thought is whether it is already zoned as Highways Land, or some other overruling right. When I got PP for a Housing Estate on family land, the people across the road were most annoyed to discover that "their" "private" verge between the fence and the footway had been zoned as extra Highways Land for half a century. Allowed the extra road width for a junction and an upgraded footpath to be a shared cycle / ped zone as part of the S106. We got rather shafted on the per plot price (30% of predicted value) but it was 2013, and we are about to cop a bit more for selling the 1m ransom strip we kept all the way round it to leverage access to the next zone. Bloody County Council have forgotten to require the next housing estate site along to widen their 200m of footpath, so our new improved 2015 active travel facility suddenly goes back to a poor footpath. Ferdinand

I missed this entirely, but then I've ben distracted the least year or two. My comments would be be clear what your objective is - do you want the money, or the peace? And: 1 - Yes to professional advice. Possibly prelim advice first. 2 - If you want to make it more difficult, get Planning to build something there and that will boost the value. Ideally a dwelling, but a garden room or garage may be an extra lever. Near me there is a very strangely shaped garage put in right against his boundary 30 years ago by someone who wanted to make development of part of the rec behind his house more difficult, as the County Council were sniffing around for playing fields to sell off. F

Thanks all. I am currently experimenting with the best way of doing winter heating with the heat pump and the gas, and it's been a bit chilly today at 4C outside all day. I have a medium sized household ("10l") dehumidifier which has a humidistat controller which I can set by %RH, and also a timer. Unfortunately I have lost it - maybe need to check the depths of the garage. The last person who borrowed it is adamant I have had it back. I tried it with the smaller commercial dehumidifier, but that seems to be overkill for the requirement, so I will send out a search party tomorrow. Cheers.

I think to address the bills you need to focus on two things - 1) The rest of your fabric, and 2) Heat loss caused by air leakage. ie Do the other half of the full renovation you have started - arguably all the right notes but not quite in the conventional order. Your ufh celotex is about the same as mine, which is 90mm. Not quite as much as I would like which would be 125-130mm, but the previous owner restored and extended my bungalow by rebuilding from 3 walls and a hole in the ground. 1) is going to be Cavity Wall Insulation and/or IWI or EWI. If you look at CWI, I would say do it carefully and go for phenolic, as it is much more insulative. 2) This is the normal process we all do in renovating, about which there is much material on the site. Low hanging fruit is things like gaps in the wall, draughts around pipe entries and your postbox, insulated and sealed loft hatches and backdraught shutters in fans (or Heat Recovery fans). And it goes on from there, with things like unsealed tops to cavity walls such that your cavity is linked to the loft above the insulation, and hence the outside. Are your floors well sealed for air leaks? Then there is less obvious stuff like escapes through your cooker hood outlet - I currently have mice coming in through the external end of mine, which means I have a direct hole to the outside from within my heated envelope. You will also need to consider ventilation. 3) One of our members did a heat loss calculator which may help you think and prioitise. Here:

I'm playing a little with drying washing with a dehunidifier, as some here do. Question: what level of humidity is required for it to be "dry"? When I have done it in the past just using the ventilation and the bathroom radiator, I have accepted something like 35-40% as "dry". I see that my (neglected) tumble dryer has a scale for "cupboard dry" and "iron dry", with varying times. What humidity numbers do others use? Cheers Ferdinand

(Ooops old thread - never mind.) I would say absolutely yes. They can get expensive because you will need a low end commercial one. But like a digger I think that if you sell it on you should do OK after the project. A few years ago I obtained a couple of commercial dehumidifiers from a commercial setup closing on retirement of the owner and saved myself about £1500 over new prices. One is a 40l/day, and one is 60l/day by rating, and in a house I had had skimmed the small one was pulling out a soft bucket of water every day for two or three days, with a fan heater running to raise it to 25C or so. No cracks. Saved my bacon when it was tight between the plasterer and the electrician. (I have them also for rented properties as an insurance in case of disaster having once had to hire one, plus a 10l domestic one with a humidistat and internal tank). As a place to start I would suggest the Broughton CR40, which is my smaller one above, and is compact. Around £550 new, or can be bought from Ebay most of the time. Size is knee high. The CR40 is comfortable to carry, but a small person might find it awkward - 23kg. Brochure attached for info. Ebac are also a reliable supplier. Don't go mad with a really big one as they get very heavy very quickly, and you may need help getting it in your car if it is 40-60kg. Get one smaller one, then another one if it works. Ferdinand industrial_dehumidifier.pdf

Go for one with a large number of very positive reviews, and as few -ve ones as possible. I have had three or four of these - the only problem I have had is when they get knocked off somewhere and fail to bounce. Alternatively a Black Friday household size dehumidifier may come with a built in humidity meter.

I shouldn't think you will need to spend £1500, even for a new one. But I am not *that* up to date. I assume you are talking airless. Mine is a Wagner one which comes on a trolley with a 15m hose. It has happily done more than one house and a 700 sqm gym in an industrial unit, which was of the order of half that price new. But I am going back 4 or 5 years. F

If @Icevergeis barking up the right tree, you could perhaps consider insulating then putting a storage floor in the loft, tightly jointed.

What a wonderful learning opportunity ! If you can't play the trombone, that will be an even better demonstration 😛. Or strangle a few elephants. Elephants are an essential tool for self-builders. They do far more around here than just be in the room and ignored in all our projects, donate their breath as a Farrow and Ball paint colour, and paint themselves pink.

Having used it for a decade, I'll be very happy to have something different ! Very fiddly, and difficult to read anything. That's one reason why I'm somewhat drawn to a WifFi linked controller.

My Honeywell CM907 controller has finally died (LCD screen). Can anyone recommend a good replacement option? I still have to decide whether I want a wired and fixed controller, or a wired base and WiFi controller. It is gas fired with ufh. Thanks Ferdinand

Welcome. That looks like an interesting old area (almost 'Open All Hours' as some are around here), where a couple of houses (or landlords) have cashed in their back gardens for a windfall. Interesting that there seems to be no off street parking, as would most likely be required now in that location. Possibly it is a bungalow due to light requirements of neighbours, either statutory or because they owned the plot. For acoustics I recommend the trombone. Very good for reminding neighbours how thin the walls are, and that they need to keep the noise down.

You won't know that until it happens. I'm expecting definite (and imo necessary, des[ite being a dyed in the wool small government man) hits on: - Electric cars. The govt needs, based on past tax, about £2.5k per car per annum, from somewhere around VAT / VED / fuel. And posh, big, expensive or new cars will pay more than the average. - Income taxes to be raised, though we have had that flagged already and there's a lot of fiscal drag coming in. - Capital gains tax and other capital taxes. Allowances are already coming down. I'm not clear whether Self build tax breaks will be reduced, as we currently do quite well from those. Personally I want the sort of wealth tax regime they have in Switzerland - which is low but progressive rates paid by a very large number of people, rather than eg soak the 0.1%. I'm also a fan of addressing various housing market distortions to tame the housing bubble, starting with CGT Main Dwellings exemption; no idea if we have any politicians with the balls to do that - but once it's done it won't be reversed. Whatever happens, Labour will tax/spend more than Tories. And electric cars will be hit from 2025 imo. You need to allow for the possibilities in your project, as further potential risk. F

Precisely. Somebody *else*. You are clearly too house proud and not stubborn enough 🙂.

Would I not want a repellent to drive them out, rather than bait blocks? Or is the idea to stop them chewing cables by diversion? Cheers F

Two wet rooms. So what about the cats? 😛 (Yes, I know your boss moggie lives in the sun lounge, but I have already tried that one on this thread.)

If this is your "decline and die in" house, have you considered a walk-in shower to replace the bathtub. They are transformative over a small shower cubicle. Complete with shower seat and grab handles and the rest, of course. F

Have you considered fitting the world's only room to room indoor catflap, if that would help manage the doors problem? 🙂 If you are worried about loss of heat to the sunlounge if that is where it goes, you can get passive house catflaps like the airlocks to spaceships - but that would require you to build an uber-thick inside wall to fit it in.

I think you need to have a quiet word with these cats; they seem to be a complicating factor. Can you move the litter tray to the sunlounge or the family bathroom?

Hmm. May have a problem. I am hearing scurrying noises above my kitchen ceiling. It has a bedroom above that. Concerned about possibility of rats or squirrels. The only obvious entry point I can see is the flappy paddle external vent from the cooker hood, which seems to be rather open. And a few weeks ago my neighbour gleefully brought a rat round in his trap to show me that he had caught in his lift. I do have a rat / squirrel trap inherited from dad, but I probably need to get an air pistol to kill anything I might catch - been wiffling about that one for a couple of years. How does one proceed? Especially given that winter will drive any pests to seek shelter. I have not detected anything not sealed behind the ceiling. Do I put one of those metal mesh vent covers over the top of the plastic ventilation outlet, or will that risk making pests die inside? Or do I clear all detritous from around that part of the garden first? All comments welcome. Happy to post pics. Ferdinand

If it's built, then grin and bear it. No one will do anything as they will call it de minimus. This was one to catch when you saw the plan, or when the foundations were put right on the boundary. Too late and not worth the aggro, unless you have a written agreement that says something else. You could say to your neighbour - "I think you got this one wrong, but I am not going to get into a big dispute about it." If you caught it before it was built you could have made them put the gutter on top of the wall, with appropriate flashing. I did that once to a neighbour in 2005-6, and their house since changed ownership, and no problems since. The one thing I would check is outlets. Where the runoff goes - it does go to their property? If it goes to yours they could end up with a prescriptive right to do it forever. And also if there are any fan outlets or gas boiler outlets coming onto your property? You need to be aware and make sure you do not block said outlets. F

If you are worried about joints, can you not have porcelain and all wear Garfield slippers 😁: